Life in the Fast Lane

April 18, 2017 by

Investors behind scraper/spammer startup Radpad enjoyed a juicy, well-deserved $60m “exit” recently, as reported by the National Law Review:

In its latest judicial victory, on April 13, 2017, craigslist obtained a $60.5 million judgment against Radpad on various claims relating to harvesting content from craigslist’s site and sending unsolicited commercial emails to craigslist users. (Craigslist, Inc. v. RadPad, Inc., No. 16-01856 (N.D. Cal. Apr. 13, 2017)).During the course of the litigation, Radpad became insolvent and its attorney withdrew from representation, essentially allowing craigslist to obtain what amounts to a default judgment.
The relief included:

  • CAN-SPAM: $40 million, based upon violations from 400,000 emails.
  • Copyright: $20.4 million for copyright infringement based on RadPad’s scraping of various user postings from craigslist’s site.
While it is doubtful that craigslist will ever collect its sizeable judgment, it will certainly raise the specter of such a large monetary award to future competitors and aggregators as an example of the potential consequences of engaging in unauthorized commercial scraping or spidering activities that run counter to craigslist’s terms of use and any cease and desist letters revoking access to its site.

Who says nice guys have to finish last?

Found on CL: Best Friend

November 1, 2015 by

by Danielle Sepulveres on Femsplain

“We danced, we giggled, we took turns buying each other rounds, went on late night adventures to find an open pizza place. We agreed that a smart rule was only doing shots if you were drinking beer, not if you were having mixed drinks. We sat on the porch in our pajamas in the morning nursing our hangovers. She listened sympathetically while I told her a guy had broken my heart and this was the happiest I’d felt in months. By the end of the weekend, we found ourselves laughing so hard in a bar bathroom, gasping for breath and she loudly whispered, “You know what? You’re my favorite.” And I instantaneously exclaimed back, “You’re MY favorite!””

11.01.15-Danielle-Supelveres-2

(illustration Fabiola Lara)

Help Wanted

October 9, 2015 by

takano.tweet

Rep Takano (D-Calif) specified that responsibilities include keeping the government open and maintaining women’s access to health care, while requirements are “proven ability to work with irrational people who pursue narrow priorities at the expense of millions of others” and “babysitting experience.”

Burning Man Missed Connections

September 15, 2015 by

bm

You were crying under a crocodile. I was with a couple friends who noticed. You had a purple (was it blue?) faux-hawk. We descended upon you and embraced and comforted you. We ended up back at your camp in a delirious state of sleep deprivation and substance come-down. You made us bacon and eggs and we lay down for a nap that became a bit of a sticky triangle.

T-Rex Art Bike For Sale

July 2, 2015 by

trex.bike

 

“Perfect for parades or The Playa”

Lacrimae rerum

June 30, 2015 by

From S.F. Superior Court, filed June 26:

Lovely vs 3taps and G. Kidd (breach of contract, etc)

From George Moses Horton, c.1829 :

Ha, tott’ring Johny, strut and boast,
But think of what your feathers cost;
Your crowing days are short at most,
You bloom but soon to fade;
Surely you could not stand so wide,
If strictly to the bottom tried,
The wind would blow your plume aside
If half your debts were paid.

Exeunt Omnes

June 27, 2015 by

From US Federal Court, Northern District of CA:

From “Merchant of Venice,” Act 4, Scene 1:

The quality of mercy is not strain’d,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;

Exit, Stage Left

June 19, 2015 by

From eBay, press release:

SAN JOSE – eBay Inc. announced today it has sold its equity interest in craigslist back to craigslist. In 2004, eBay acquired a 28.4% equity interest in craigslist. Under a confidential settlement agreement, craigslist has repurchased all of eBay’s equity and all litigation between eBay and craigslist will be dismissed.

From Shakespeare, All’s Well That Ends Well, Act I, Scene I:

Love all, trust a few
Do wrong to none: be able for thine enemy
Rather in power than use, and keep thy friend
Under thy own life’s key: be check’d for silence,
But never tax’d for speech.

From Pando, journalism

Sweet Ride

June 18, 2015 by

Complete with flame thrower, taser, and hovercraft farings

sweet.ride

craigslist DNS Outage

November 24, 2014 by

At approximately 5pm PST Sunday evening the craigslist domain name service (DNS) records maintained at one of our domain registrars were compromised, diverting users to various non-craigslist sites.

This issue has been corrected at the source, but many internet service providers (ISPs) cached the false DNS information for several hours, and some may still have incorrect information.

If you are unable to reach the craigslist site, please ask your network provider or tech staff to flush all *.craigslist.org and *.craigslist.com entries (A,CNAME,SOA) from their DNS servers.